The present disclosure generally relates to a wireless telecommunications, and more particularly to a method for optimizing up-link transmission power of a wireless terminal in a multi-carrier system.
One of the features of new generation wireless devices is the faster data transfer rate. For example, in 3G systems, wireless devices are required to have a data transfer rate up to 10 Mb/s, and in future 4G systems, wireless devices may be required to have a data transfer rate up to 1,000 Mb/s. In order to support such a fast rate of data transfer, these wireless communication devices are often designed with broadband capabilities.
As wireless broadband technology advances, many restrictions and limitations are put in place to regulate the use of frequencies. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) puts in place certain regulations that regulate how signals may be transmitted over a spectrum of frequency. For example, FCC has regulations to control the out-of-band spurious emission power in license bands, such as the multipoint multi-channel distribution system (MMDS) and the wireless communication service (WCS) bands. The out-of-band spurious emissions are unwanted frequencies that are outside a designated bandwidth. The out-of-band spurious emissions near a band edge are commonly caused by the inter-modulation distortions from a transmitter. The out-of-band emissions away from the band edge are commonly caused by the noise floor of the transmitter or the combination of the noise floor and the inter-modulation distortions of the transmitter. These regulations limit the allowable output power of the transmitter to a maximum level, in order to ensure the interoperability of various systems in neighboring bands.
There are several conventional solutions for wireless system operators to meet the FCC regulations. The first conventional solution uses a high power linear amplifier to minimize inter-modulation distortions. Advantages of this solution include a higher transmitting power and a lower system link budget. However, the disadvantages of the solution include higher costs, higher power consumption, and a larger size of equipment for sinking heat. This conventional solution is particularly not suitable for a wireless terminal that requires a small size and low manufacturing cost.
The second conventional solution is to use a channel filter for a wireless system to filter out inter-modulation distortions, and to reduce the out-of-band noise floor. This allows the system to have lower out-of-band spurious emissions, but could lead to problems such as high costs, low transmitter power, and fixed frequency channels. In addition, the system may not be able to reduce the out-of-band spurious emissions near the band edge. Thus, this conventional solution is not suitable for a terminal that requires the ability to communicate with various base transceiver stations (BTS) using different frequency channels.
The third conventional solution is to add an extra guard band to the band edge. This allows the system to have a high transmitting power. However, this solution leads to an inefficient use of frequency spectrum, reduction in signal capacity, and an increase in overall system costs.
As such, what is needed in the art of wireless telecommunications technology is a method for optimizing the transmission power for a wireless terminal in a multi-carrier system.